SAHM struggles

I have the same problem. I am a SAHM to a 3 year old boy. I find after 1 pm, I will catch myself grazing or eating my sons leftovers. I wish that I could figure out the "magic remedy" to stop this madness!!!

I am a SAHM and I have a 3 yr old. I agree that it's not always easy to get out and do something. But I have been taking my son on walks or to the park. What I do when I want a snack is add up the calories and ask myself if it's worth it, it's usually not! My daughter took cupcakes to school yesterday and I could have easily eaten a couple but after figuring how long it would take me to work it off I really didn't want any!

I'm a sahm too, (youngest just turned five), and over the last few months I've created parameters for myself and have made it a habit to stay within them. I do not eat after 7pm (worked my way back gradually from 9:30pm-used to be a night time binge snacker after the kids went to bed). Now I rarely eat snacks or 'graze', instead I focus on 2-3 large meals. If I want something sweet/a treat I incorporate it into my meal times. This prevents me from making one snack into a full blown extra meal.

Your doctor's cardio recommendation seems extreme.

Turn on some music get out scarves and twirly skirts and dance around the house like fairies or princesses or whatever she wants to be. This gets you moving and I bet she will ask to to it day after day that is 20-30 min cardio and wonderful time spent as a fun mom.:flowerforyou:

I'm a SAHM too with a 2 year and 2 month old. My husband and I only have 1 car, which he takes to work, so I walk every where which helps with the weight loss. I use to be a bad grazer, especially when my son didn't finish his plate. I deal with it by throwing it directly in the trash as soon as he's done. This keeps me from eating his food without even thinking. I also keep cut up cucumbers and carrots in the fridge. If I start to get the munchies I'll down a glass of water and then wait 5 minutes while cleaning. If I'm still hungry then I'll eat the veggies, more often then not though I'll distract myself with all the little task that need to be done.

I know I'll catch hell from the SAHM group for this, however, none of these suggestions are things I've been unable to accomplish during the times when I am at home with my two girls (ages 2 and 3) when they are on school holiday. I'm also not one to sugar coat things so let's be real:

1. Stop feeding your kids crap. They eat it because you provide it. My kids eat healthy most of the time, but when we do give them unhealthy food choices and we happen to have a bit or two we don't make excuses like it is something that we didn't make happen based on our own choices.
2. Working out - just get moving. Go play in the yard. Find a used jogging stroller. Go to they playground and do push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups while you are watching them play. Get your spouse to watch the kids for an hour while you go work out. Do a workout DVD while they are napping or after they go to sleep at night. There are options you just have to make it work.

From now on, rather than saying "I don't have time for X" I want you to use the phrase "I have chosen not to prioritize X". Too many people around here like making excuses for themselves (or making excuses for others) when the reality is that you don't want it bad enough to do what has to be done. You like your time, convenience, comfort, good tasting foods more than you want to be thin and fit. In order to make a change you have to find the will power. There is no magic bullet (or pill or exercise) for that.

Is it possible you're suffering from a bit of depression? If so, it can have an impact on not only your motivation but also your eating patterns.

I actually lost the bulk of my weight from the time my son was age 2-4 because I was going to playdates every day which got me out of the house and in front of people that I 1. didn't want to eat in front of and 2. complimented me on my progress giving me motivation to keep up the good work.

I did make sure to always have snacks handy for me so that when I didn't want to measure or have the time to measure, it was already handy for me.

Maybe look at your childs food and think of all the back wash or chunks of half eaten food that fall off their cute dirty little face & hands into that food that you're thinking about putting in your mouth. :laugh:

We go to a gym with childcare several mornings a week

What kinds of things do you do at the gym? Take classes? Have your own workout plan set up? Treadmill/Eliptical? I have been into taking my Workout DVD (P90X and ChaLEAN Extreme) and laptop or portable DVD player to the gym with me. It helps focus my time and I know I am getting a good workout in. If you have questions about this, or these programs, I'd love to chat, just message or friend me!

It isnt easy with a 4 year old, i know that as i have a 4 year old daughter, how about going out on a bike ride or to the park when it comes to that time of day when you struggle with the "munchies".
I struggle with that time of day to so i try to keep myself occupied by going out or going into the garden to play with my daughter to distract myself .

Good luck

SAHM struggles...

Sounds like the name of a show where SAHMs wrestle in mud...

ROUND 1!

I had friends that I would trade babysitting with. also had a jogging stroller and would put my two in there and went for a walk or jog to the park. Got my exercise in and got out of the house.

God bless,
Karen

I'm a SAHM of 2, but I'm going back to school f/t in the fall.

I decided to get healthy about a year ago. Since then, I've gradually introduced changes to keep the whole family healthy.

I have trouble with snacking when I'm bored, too. I've had to really work on my relationship with food to get out of the munching when I have the munchies mentality. One thing that I've done has been to eliminate processed snacks from the house. I don't keep Goldfish crackers or fruit snacks for the kids anymore. They are allowed to have a small treat once in awhile, but it will be like a single cookie from the bakery or a single piece of candy. I find that if I have boxes of that stuff in my house, two things happen: 1. I WILL eventually decide to eat the whole thing in one setting and 2. the kids stop eating the healthy stuff I feed them and start asking for the crap that they know is in the cupboards. So we don't eat it often.

ETA: what kids eat has come up a few times since I wrote this. This has been a huge point of controversy in our extended family: the idea that you have to let kids be kids and it's okay to just let them eat kid food. I don't really buy into that, since I don't want my kids to have to go through their adult life and try to reprogram their tastes and understandings about food because they got fat or sick. Like my husband and I did. And I have found with everything from getting a breast fed baby to take a bottle to getting my oldest to eat new foods that kids might go a few meals without eating, but they will not starve themselves to death. Offer them food regularly and don't make a big deal over it if they don't eat. I read somewhere that it takes 8 or more times of introduction to a new food to get kids to try it. As long as you are patient and they don't fill up on crap in between meals, and as long as you are modeling well for them, they will learn to eat healthy foods.

The other thing I do is I do a LOT of meal planning, especially for snacks and dinners. I rarely go to eat something without having given a lot of thought as to what I'm going to eat. This is a PITA at first, but it is really helpful in the long run. So when I start getting hungry in the afternoon I can go and prepare my snack or eat my pre-prepared snack and not have to worry about what I'm going to eat or how it fits in with my nutrition goals. I'm getting to the point now where I'm starting to transition into maintenance and a more normal lifestyle where I don't plan and log absolutely everything. But I'm taking it slowly.

I have found that if I don't get too hungry I am less likely to binge. Part of my unhealthy relationship with food in the past was the binge and fast pattern... so that I would get SO hungry because I couldn't be bothered to eat (such as taking the time to prepare breakfast in the morning or pack a lunch before work) that I would eat loads of the fastest food I could get my hands on. So I ate out a lot and we couldn't keep certain foods in the house without me eating the whole thing. I still do this when I'm travelling if I skip a meal or two, so knowing about it helps me avoid it. So I always eat a good breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner and I usually plan a post-dinner snack or light dessert for myself as well and I don't usually get to the point where I'm starving.

You said that you're not having much trouble finding time to exercise, so that's good! I have scheduled workout times during the week. The actual workout times have to be flexible and vary since I can't afford the child care at the gym so I have to wait for hubs to get home. Right now, though, I'm down to just 30 minutes of weight lifting 3x per week and then the rest of the time I just try to stay active. So we go for walks to the park. Or I take them fishing. Or we will go for a bike ride (my oldest learned to ride on his own this year, and my toddler rides on a front-mounted seat on my bike). Or we will do some soccer practice. Twice a week I clean the house really well. I try to plan activities that get us up and moving and away from the TV and the computer and the video games. Because, honestly, I get bored with the electronic entertainment, myself!

Good luck!